Flannery O'Conner's work is full of profound Christian imagery and themes; however, his stories are not rainbows, triumph and love. They are grotesque, disturbing, jarring and dark. In Wise Blood Hazel Motes goes from self-proclaimed priesthood, to blind decay, then to death. Enoch is a man governed by his instincts, like an animal, who turns into an ape-like existence. These men do not exactly display the fruits of the spirit, engaging in prostitution, theft and murder, but this is all part of a carefully constructed technique. O'Conner uses the apophatic method to present his concept of Christianity and the divinity of God. ReductionThe main symbol of Jesus, or rather the antithesis of Jesus, within Wise Blood is the mummy thatHaze, the name by which he is occasionally called Hazel, is defined by the Merriam-Webster online dictionary as “dust, smoke, or fog that fills the air so that one cannot see clearly” or as “a state of mental confusion.” At first, Hazel is spiritually blind, refusing to follow the call of Jesus, who he saw “moving from tree to tree in the depths of his mind.” However, when his car is pushed over the ledge, he begins to see his spiritual blindness for the first time and realizes. that he cannot redeem himself. Instead of submitting to Jesus' victory, he turns his physical blindness into literal blindness, doing what the preacher Asa Hawkes did not, and taking the lime from his own. He internally protests against his blood before entering the cinema , scared that his blood might make him do something he doesn't want to do. Apparently against his will, he "found himself walking through a long red hallway..." into the movie theater. Enoch, instead of relying on higher reasoning, allowed animalistic instincts to take control of his life. Eventually, he dons a monkey costume and begins an ape-like existence in the woods, abandoning reasoning and all human aspirations in the world.